306 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
absorbs and appropriates tbe oxygen which is within the pores of the wood, 
and so checks, or rather prevents the eremacausis of the ligneous tissue. 
3. It resinifies within the pores of the wood, and in this way shuts out 
both air and moisture. 4. It acts as a positive poison to the lower forms 
of animal and vegetable life, and so protects the wood from the attacks of 
fungi, acari, and other parasites. Since the creosoting process was first 
introduced in the year 1838 it has been extensively employed in Great 
Britain and Ireland ; in all countries on the Continent where creosote oil 
can be obtained — France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and 
Italy ; and in India, Cape Colony, Brazil, and other tropical countries, to 
preserve timber from the attacks of the white ant. Wherever it has been 
properly carried out it has been completely successful.” 
Stqjersaturation of Sugar Solutions in Alcohol . — The Chemical News gives 
the following abstract of a note in the Comptes-Rendus of May 10. On 
behalf of M. Margueritte, M. Sainte-Claire Deville read a note setting forth 
the objections they have to make against the theory of M. Dubrunfaut con- 
cerning the supersaturation of sugar solutions in alcohol. The author says 
that Dubrunfaut has not proved by any experiment that when crystallisable 
sugar is dissolved in water, and alcohol added, any change should take place 
in the sugar itself. It is, therefore, evident that nothing else happens than 
the return to the solid state of a substance previously dissolved, and the crys- 
tallisation of which was impeded either by the presence of water, or some 
other unknown cause. 
The Chemistry of Nitroglycei'in. — M. Tilberg has made some researches on 
this substance, making use of the nitroglycerine manufactured on the large 
scale at Stockholm. This material is decomposed by potassa, giving rise to 
the formation of nitrate of potassa and glycerine ; but, at the same time, 
there are formed secondary products, as ammonia, cyanogen, oxalic and 
ulmic acids, and nitrous acid. According to the results of elementary ana- 
lysis made by the author, the formula for this kind of nitroglycerine should 
be C3ll5(N02)303. The substance is soluble in concentrated sulphuric acid, 
yielding a clear solution, and forming a sulphoconj ugate which, on being 
combined with bases, gives crystallisable salts. — Vide Chemical News, 
May 21. 
The Preparation of Artificial Ebony . — This substance is now being ma- 
nufactured on a tolerably extensive scale. It is prepared, says a contem- 
porary, by taking sixty parts of seaweed charcoal, obtained by treat- 
ing the seaweed for two hours in dilute sulphuric acid j then drying 
and grinding it^ and adding to it ten parts of liquid glue, five parts gutta- 
perclia, and two and a-half parts of india-rubber, the last two dissolved in 
naphtha; then adding ton parts of coal tar, five parts pulverised sulphur, 
two parts pulverised alum, and five parts of powdered resin, and heating the 
mixture to about 3(X) deg. Fah. We thus obtain, after the mass has become 
cold, a material which in colour, hardness, and capability of taking a polish, 
is equal in every respect to ebony, and much cheaper. 
A New Work on Chemistry is now in the press, and will shortly be pub- 
lished by Messrs. Longman. The author is Dr. Odling. The volume will 
consist of the notes from which the author has lectured for the last six years 
at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, revised and somewhat extended, so as to 
